


Positive | Negative | Indifferent | Mixed | Unsure

by lizard_socks



Series: Rootstock [10]
Category: Blue Beetle (Comics)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F#, Far Future, Gen, Holodecks/Holosuites, International Fanworks Day 2021, Sharing a Body, Social Anxiety
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-10
Updated: 2021-02-10
Packaged: 2021-03-14 21:47:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29302920
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lizard_socks/pseuds/lizard_socks
Summary: Skylar Martinez may be grumpy and antisocial, but they're very protective of their parasite / best friend, Khaji Da, and a little hurt that the scarab doesn't seem to appreciate the holographic avatar they spent so much time working on (and stealing the equipment for).
Series: Rootstock [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1778194
Kudos: 1





	Positive | Negative | Indifferent | Mixed | Unsure

**Author's Note:**

> International Fanworks Day seems like a great time for me to try writing for a character (or, at least, a future version thereof) who I'm not all that familiar with, but absolutely love the idea of.

Skylar Martinez knew they'd get caught. They were counting on getting caught. When you aspire to be one of the most infamous supervillains across all of Iroshan space, you know enough to wear your supervillain outfit - a red and black full-body suit of telescoping alien metal - when you go out and make a mess of things.  


But they didn't expect _these_ people to be the ones who'd catch them. Ashley the human and Leaf the monster, the two least qualified, most expendable starship employees Iroshar had to offer.  


"Seriously?" Skylar asked. They looked down the arrow tip of Ashley's laser bow. "You again? You might as well just shoot me. Be kind of poetic if I died to another human, wouldn't it?"  


"I don't carry a laser bow to shoot people, Axyridis," Ashley said. "If I wanted to shoot them, I'd use a pocket phaser. Something I could conceal."  


"You know a lot about concealing weapons, I'm sure," added Leaf, a gray furry creature who reminded Skylar of a teenage kid in a cheap Halloween costume. The two of them wore the same drab uniform.  


"They're not _my_ weapons," Skylar said, irritated. "As much as I'd like to take credit, they're part of the scarab. I can't use them unless it wants me to."  


"So, what?" asked Leaf. "You're throwing your parasitic friend under the bus?"  


"No, of course not! We did this together, and we are going to jail together."  


Ashley gave Skylar a questioning look. "For what?" she asked.  


"You're not here to arrest me?"  


Ashley shook her head.  


"Why not!?"  


Leaf narrowed his eyes. "Are you trying to convince us that you caused some sort of property damage?" he asked. "Because, from what I can tell, this place is in _better_ shape than it was when you got here. You broke into a holographic entertainment center, and you installed newer, better equipment."  


"And then you set the old equipment to the side," Ashley asked. " _Gently._ "  


Skylar glared at her. "How dare you."  


"I think we share a certain... ambition." Ashley put her hands in her pockets. "You don't want to be famous, per se. You want to be well-known. You want people to know exactly who you are so they don't make any assumptions about you."  


"And how are _you_ supposed to know who I am?" Skylar asked. "Leaf, at least he has that weird human fetish."  


Ashley looked at Leaf, who shrugged.  


"Well, I'm not gonna deny it," Leaf said. "What I don't get, though, is what reason you have for being a villain. What's your story? Every bad guy needs one, even if it's as flimsy as a mouthwash strip."  


"I wanna blow stuff up," Skylar protested. "Isn't that enough?"  


"I don't think you do, Skylar. Don't you think we've noticed that none of your very public appearances in the past eleven months has resulted in any damage or injuries? Don't you think _everyone's_ noticed?"  


"Or are you just trying to cover something up?" Ashley asked. "To hide who you really are?"  


"I am _not_ like them," Skylar muttered. "They're not bad guys. I am."  


"Uh... who?"  


"The superheroes. The protestors. The... youth or whatever, I don't know. Listen. Either you're good, or you're bad, or you're bad pretending to be good, which is even worse than just being bad. And I'm not good. I'm not helping people. I'm not fighting for anyone but myself."  


"And _that's_ why you wear that silly outfit?" Ashley asked. "Because you feel bad about yourself?"  


Skylar put their hands on their hips. "I think you mean, _very cool_ outfit."  


"It is spiffy," Leaf agreed, drawing a scoff from Ashley. "But," he continued, "even though you might be doing this just for your own benefit, I don't think it's true to say you're not helping anyone at all. This place - it's a giant holographic rendering complex. It renders holographic characters with their own simulated memories, based on the thoughts and feelings of people inside."  


"Kinda broken, by the way," Ashley noted. "Didn't work right on me. And definitely illegal."  


"Not on Arkan."  


"Really?"  


Leaf shrugged. "My point is... there's a specific use case for this sort of technology. You came here for a reason."  


"And why do you care?" asked Skylar.  


"As crazy as it sounds... I'd like to meet him. Khaji Da."  


Skylar narrowed their eyes and paused for a moment. "Pretty sure the answer's gonna be no, but... it's asking why."  


"He's famous, for one thing," volunteered Ashley. "I know Blue  
Beetle might not be a household name here in Iroshan space, but the  
stories of Earth's earliest alien encounters certainly give him his  
due."

* * *

Skylar threw their pillow against the wall.  


It wasn't the pillow's fault. It was a really good pillow. But they were irritated. Skylar had put a lot of effort into securing that holographic simulation environment and installing the telepathic behavior derivation module. And for what? Khaji Da didn't seem to appreciate any of it.  

    
    
    406  
    
    

"What's that supposed to mean?" replied Skylar.  

    
    
    (406, "Not Acceptable")  
    
    

"So, what, you don't want to hear me complain? There's no way around it. Not if you want to share this body with me."  

    
    
    202  
    
    

"And why are you talking like that? You can speak my language just fine."  

    
    
    101  
    
    

"Listen, I spent a lot of time getting that holosuite working. I don't need to tell you that. You were there. I did all that so you could have an avatar. Your own physical form, so you could interact with the world around you, at least a little piece of it, without having to go through me. Did you really hate it so much?"  

    
    
    type Sentiment =  
    
    | Positive  
    
    | Negative  
    
    | Indifferent  
    
    | Mixed  
    
    | Unsure  
    
    type Being =  
    
    | Skylar  
    
    | Stranger of name: string  
    
    type Person =  
    
    | Self  
    
    | OtherBeing of Being  
    
    type Subject =  
    
    | Feelings of Person  
    
    type Target =  
    
    | PhysicalManifestation of Person  
    
    | PresenceOf of Person  
    
    | ReactionOf of Person

"Domain modeling?" asked Skylar. "Really?"  

    
    
    SelfExpression.Forms |> List.sortByDescending (fun f -> f.Efficiency) = this  
    
    

"Ugh. Fine. Listen, if you don't wanna have a hologram body, that's okay. I'm not gonna make you do it again. I just thought you might like it."  

    
    
    match (subject, target) with  
    
    | (Feelings (OtherBeing Skylar), PhysicalManifestation Self) -> Unsure

"You're wondering what I thought of your avatar?"  

    
    
    true  
    
    

"I thought it was good. To finally see you face to face. I know that's not really what you look like, but it's easy for me to interact with, you know?"  

    
    
     | (Feelings (OtherBeing Skylar), PhysicalManifestation Self) -> Positive  
    
    

"Yeah, that's right."  

    
    
     | (Feelings (OtherBeing _), _) -> Indifferent  
    
    

"Don't care about much else, do you? But that's not what's on your mind. You can read my emotions - you already knew how I felt. Was it something you saw in the simulation?"  

    
    
     | (Feelings Self, PhysicalManifestation (OtherBeing _)) -> Indifferent  
    
    

"Well, of course you don't care what other people look like."  

    
    
     | (Feelings Self, PresenceOf Self) -> Negative  
    
    

"You really didn't wanna be there, huh?" 
    
    
     | (Feelings Self, PhysicalManifestation Self) -> Mixed  
    
    | (Feelings Self, ReactionOf Self) -> Unsure

"Well, at least it wasn't all bad, I guess. And it's totally fine to not know how you feel. Especially how you feel about your own feelings. That's my whole freaking life right there."
    
    
     | (Feelings Self, PresenceOf (OtherBeing Skylar)) -> Positive  
    
    

"I'm glad you enjoyed the company. It better be positive. We're literally always together." They sighed. "So. Are you not going to tell you what's bothering me? Don't think I can't figure out what cases are left in that discriminated union type of yours."
    
    
     | (Feelings Self, ReactionOf (OtherBeing (Stranger _))) -> Positive  
    
    

"Really?" asked Skylar. "That didn't bother you, being recognized? I thought for sure that was it."  

    
    
     | (Feelings Self, PresenceOf (OtherBeing (Stranger _))) -> Negative  
    
    

"Oh. Yeah, I get it. I'm sorry about that, I really am."  

    
    
     | (Feelings Self, ReactionOf (OtherBeing Skylar)) -> Positive  
    
    

"I wish I could have locked down the place. But I'm only one person, with no friends."  

    
    
    List.length Skylar.Friends |> isEmpty |> not  
    
    

"Fine. _One_ friend. You know I don't want you to be uncomfortable. And I appreciate you categorizing me as my own type of being, I really do! But I want you to be able to interact with people - to have more than one relationship. Maybe not now, but someday."  

    
    
    do! 8 |> TimeSpan.FromHours |> Async.sleep  
    
    

"Fine, we don't have to talk about it anymore." Skylar got up to grab the pillow they'd thrown. It was a nice pillow. Maybe they'd steal it. Then again, maybe it was easier to buy a new one.  

    
    
    Environment.Current.People |> List.head |> Person.purchase pillow  
    
    

"You think I could?"  

    
    
    let wants_money person =  
    
    person.Desires |> Seq.contains money  
    
      
    
    Planets.Iroshar.People |> List.every wants_money  
    
    

"Aw, come on. That's a bit of an exaggeration."  

    
    
    Environment.Current.People |> List.where wants_money |> List.head |> Person.purchase pillow  
    
    

"You're right. I'm sure someone will sell it to me."  



End file.
